To be fair Lote has only played a hand full of games this year so his skills would be rusty, lacking in match fitness and low in confidence. I would have imagined he was also probably tentative going into tackles either in attack or defence knowing that he keeps getting injured during his return games. He's an International with tremendous experience at the highest levels so he has what it takes and should only improve with each match he plays.
In saying all of that, to play devil's advocate and play the other side of the arguement for a moment, Utai and Ryan are playing extremely well (if you forgive the occasional error) and are both very dangerous with the ball in hand lately. They are both match fit, know the set plays well and are in good form. Utai in particular continues to smash opposing teams when he gets the ball. He's taking 3-4 players to stop him nearly every time and amazingly he still manages to get fast play the balls (perhaps due to his low centre of gravity :slight_smile: which is helping our backs get valuable ball whilst the opposition is on the back foot. It could be argued that in the modern game wingers like Uate, Yow Yeh, Utai and Vatuvei are more valuable to the team for their extra workload than having a flashy winger who is not as effective in doing the hard yards up the middle but more known for just finishing off back line movements (if they happen).
Personally, I hope Lote can get his fitness and confidence back and then show us he can be the fine finisher that we all already know but also help make some more "effective hit ups" in the future to help the forwards which will be critical when we get to the finals as the pace of the game will go up yet another level and we will need those hard yards runs more than ever.
